Is it possible to create vaccines for food poisoning (E. coli, listeria, salmonella, etc.)? Why?

Answer 1

Generally speaking, they are not as effective as viral vaccines and so they are neither cost-efficient nor a good public health strategy. We do give certain bacterial vaccines to high-risk groups, however. For example, military members receive Botulism vaccines to protect them from the potential weaponization of these bacteria!

Answer 2

Let us consider example with Escherichia coli or E.coli.

Did you know that the immunization of cows, sheep, or goats is the most cost-effective method of controlling E. coli infection in farm animals?

As a matter of fact, it has been available for years! However, in the farm animals, a parenteral administration (intramuscular injection) is a major route of delivering vaccine while delivering via mucosal route is limited due to its decreased efficacy. The “ideal” vaccine should be able to stimulate defensive immunity at both mucosal and systemic levels. For this reason, only few vaccines are on the market for farm animals.

What about humans? Unfortunately, today broadly protective vaccines against pathogenic E. coli are not available. E.coli evolves unpredictably from non-dangerous to highly dangerous (hypervirulent) or multi-drug resistant forms that are responsible for severe diseases and outbreaks. Nevertheless, our knowledge on E. coli pathogenesis and on the mediated immune response as well as with advances in technologies are growing. We could hope for the development of the immunogenic vaccines against E. coli infections in both humans and animals in the near future.

Do you want to know more details?

Lawan A, Jesse FFA, Idris UH, Odhah MN, Arsalan M, Muhammad NA, Bhutto KR, Peter ID, Abraham GA, Wahid AH, Mohd-Azmi ML, Zamri-Saad M. Mucosal and systemic  responses of immunogenic vaccines candidates against enteric Escherichia coli infections in ruminants: A review. Microb Pathog. 2018;117:175-183.

Nesta B, Pizza M. Vaccines Against Escherichia coli. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol. 2018;416:213-242.